The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation. Now is the time of their confusion.
Parallel translations
- WEB The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion.
- KJV The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.
- NKJV The best of them is like a brier; The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge; The day of your watchman and your punishment comes; Now shall be their perplexity.
- NASB The best of them is like a thorn bush, The most upright like a thorn hedge. The day when you post your watchmen, Your punishment is coming. Then their confusion will occur.
- NLT Even the best of them is like a brier; the most honest is as dangerous as a hedge of thorns. But your judgment day is coming swiftly now. Your time of punishment is here, a time of confusion.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Even the best among them is as harmful as a thorn, and the day of God's reckoning has arrived. It warns that the long-foretold day of judgment has come.
Overview
The finest of these people are like briers and thorn hedges, painful and destructive rather than helpful. "The day of your watchmen," the visitation the prophets warned of, now brings confusion and judgment. When even the best are corrupt, only divine intervention can save, pointing to the need for God's promised deliverance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Isa 22:5For the Lord GOD of Hosts has set a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision—of breaking down the walls and crying to the mountains.
- Ezek 2:6But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.
- Isa 10:3What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
- 2 Sam 23:6–7But the worthless are all like thorns raked aside, for they can never be gathered by hand.
- Hos 9:7–8The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived—let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility.
- Amos 8:2“Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”
- Ezek 12:23–24Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will put an end to this proverb, and in Israel they will no longer recite it.’ But say to them: ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled.
- Luke 21:25There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.
- Isa 55:13Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will grow, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will spring up; they will make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign, never to be destroyed.”
- Jer 10:15They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.
- Heb 6:8But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.
- Jer 8:12Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.
- Nah 1:10For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Micah names the town — 'But you, Bethlehem... from you shall come forth one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origins are from of old' — the birthplace of the eternal King.
How Micah 7:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.